


Squiddles! Halloween Special: The Ghost of Skipper Plumbthroat!

by glitchyGhost



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Gen, Halloween Special, Squiddles
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-10-13
Updated: 2012-11-01
Packaged: 2017-11-16 05:52:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 4,331
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/536198
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/glitchyGhost/pseuds/glitchyGhost
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's been years since the dreadful Skipper Plumbthroat drowned in the Rushing Seas. The Squiddles have since founded a new colony and were living together in peaceful joy. But one day, they heard a terrible voice calling...</p><p>This Halloween, the terror returns!</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Teaser

'Twas a dark and stormy night when the sharks took to the sea. The ocean tossed and turned, the clouds churned, lightning made great rifts in the sky, like a white scratch on a black disc. But the sharks didn't mind; they were the best sailors in the sea. They steered their cutter far out from the shore. They followed the storms for miles and miles until they reached a cursed spot in the ocean, far and forsaken from all life.

"You ready wit' that anchor?" Jazzer called to her shipmate Minder.

Minder grunted and threw the anchor overboard. It fell into the ocean with a great splash. It finally it bottom and the cutter rocked from side to side. "Sure hope I didn't throw that on the poor sod's head."

"Don't matter if you got his head; we don't worry about his corpse. You got that lightning stick?"

"Why I got to work the lightning stick? You always get the better deal, all you gotta do is shake the rain rod." 

"And, don't forget, I gotta do the chanting too. It be worthless for the chanter, me that is, to get struck by lightning mid-chant and croak before I got all them long words out."

Minder didn't much like that. He tackled Jazzer. They rolled on the bottom of the boat in a ball of fins, biceps, khaki shorts and rough woven shirts. The fight went on until the cutter, already unsteady on the rough waters and being further rocked about by their kershuffle, went onto its side for a long second and Minder rolled right off. 

Jazzer waited until the boat calmed down as much as it would and then stood up. She could see Minder swimming off back towards shore. "And farewell to you!" She yelled. It would be a pain to do everything alone but it would have been more annoying to have to do it with Minder. She figured it was a fair enough trade.

Jazzer took the rain road in her left hand, the lightning stick in her right. Both sticks were about three feet long. The rain rod was blue speckled with white, made of a hollowed oak branch filled with pebbles. The lightning rod was swirled purple, yellow, and brown. It was made of metal and elder wood scorched together. Jazzer raised the rain stick over her head and hopped in circles, chanting:

"Soggy bones and puffy skin,  
Sleeping on the ocean floor  
Hear my call and feel the rain  
Ride the lightning up again!"

With the final word, she thrust the lightning rod straight up towards the sky. Like a bolt from the blue, a single bolt of lightning struck the top of the rod. When it hit, a great otherworldly scream rang out. Then, the lightning was gone and a pale apparition floated in front of Jazzer. 

Jazzer threw the two sticks on the bottom of the boat and regretted it quickly, as the lightning rod was still sparking a little. "You owe us some money, Skipper Plumbthroat." 

 


	2. Friendship Reef

The sun above the water made Friendship Reef sparkle like a bright diamond and made the coral reef look even more colorful than usual. Tentachloe Pink yawned as she swam out of her special sleeping nook. “Good morning, Inky!” she called out to her friend Inksock Green, who had been waiting by the entrance.

“Hi Chloe,” he mumbled. She swam over and they tangled. “We missed you last night at the usual Friendship Reef-family tangle.”

“I'm really sorry I didn't get to see everyone but I had a lot to think about!”

“You're so strange,” Inky said as they pulled apart. But that makes you even more special, you know? I think you are going to have lots of big and fun adventures, Chloe.”

“Thanks, Inky! I hope I can have happy adventures. And I hope you can come with me!” she answered. They both felt a twinge of excitement and fear using the word 'adventure', which to Squiddles had a second meaning – fleeing from the notorious Skipper Plumbthroat, the only man desperate and ruthless enough to hunt down Squiddles and sell their ink, tentacles, and bright incandescent skin to land-dwellers. He had been dead for nearly three years thanks to the heroic Squidbert Red. The colony at Friendship Reef had grown impressively since then, the population now at an almost pre-Plumbthroat level. But the older Squiddles especially remembered the lonely reign of horrorterror of Skipper Plumbthroat and instilled in the younger generation a wary cautiousness.

Inky and Chloe had been aimlessly swimming towards Bright Shore Center, the heart of Friendship Reef. “You know, I feel like there's something coming to the reef. Something big that will change us.”

Inky frowned a little, and didn't answer. He thought something coming to the reef sounded bad. Instead, he waved to purplish Squiddle eating snack algae by the General Store. “Hi Sealace,” he called.

“Oh, hi!” Chloe added.

Sealace Fuschia looked up. She waved aloofly. “Hello Inksock, Tentachloe.”

They looked at each other and giggled. Sealace was pretty weird. She pretended to dislike tangling and never called other Squiddles by their proper nicknames, even if they were buddies. But the grown-ups had said she had a reason for acting strangely, though none of them would explain what exactly that reason was. All they said was that it had to do with the beautiful sparkling skin that ran in her family.

“Sealace, what are you doing today? Inky and me have been talking about going to the Valley of Laugher for a long time and since it's so nice out, we may go today!”

“After the meeting, correct?”

“Of course, silly. We would never skip a reef meeting.”

“I may consider it. I've yet to visit the valley since moving here.” Inky and Chloe cheered and tangled with each other, knowing Chloe wouldn't let them tangle with her. “I just wonder, as a curiosity, if that Orange fellow you two are acquainted with may make an appearance as well. Or, I mean, would he also come along on this field trip of yours?”

“Orange?” Inky asked, flailing his eight tentacles in confusion. “Oh, wait – you mean Bubblebro, right?”

Primly, Sealace responded, “The name does ring a bell, yes.”

Chloe nudged Inky. Bubblebro was another close buddy of theirs and even though he and Sealace had only hung out together twice, she was very smitten with him. “We were thinking of inviting him too,” Chloe managed to say with a straight face.

“It is not a great concern, I was merely curious,” she reiterated. Her flustered voice gave her away a little but just then the sound of a horn blew through Friendship Reef, calling all Squiddles to the weekly town meeting and saving Sealace from Chloe and Inky's poking and prodding. Both were positively smirking. “Let's head off then, we'd best get to the meeting. I'd like to arrive to meeting on time at least once while I live here,” she said, swimming off.

'What do you mean, 'at least while I live here'? That sounds like you aren't going to spend the rest of your life here! That's sad and lonely, to think that someday you might not be around.” Chloe said.

Sealace didn't answer Chloe, she only sped up as the rainbow of Squiddles came into view. “Look at this, they have not yet started! Today is a fine day, friends.” 

Inky shrugged at Chloe. She let it drop and the three swam to the large grouping of Squiddles gathered by Seashell Podium. They squeezed towards the front.   
Major Fastfin Turquoise was just taking his place. Sealace nudged each of them with a tentacle, grinning. “This will be my first time hearing the Mayor’s greeting,” she whispered dramatically. “I’m so very excited.”

The great horn sounded again as a signal for the meeting to start. Mayor Fastfin stretched out his tentacles with great importance. “Ladies and gentlesquids, children and adults, another happy week to you. It is my pleasure to say this is the 99th week since we have settled Friendship Reef. Let us take a moment of silence to count our blessings, remember our friends lost to us, and offer our praise to the Outer Gods who watch over us and our divine creator, Fluthlu.”

All the Squiddles linked tentacles in silent solidarity. After a long moment, they whispered in unison, “Hail Fluthlu,” and released each other.

As Mayor Fastfin continued on to the announcements for the week, an orange Squiddle drifted over to their party of three. He bumped against Inky, who was startled into pushing against some of the grown-up Squiddles nearby. They papped him and turned back to the Mayor. “Bubble, don’t do that!” he chided under his breath. Bubblebro didn’t answer. He only floated impassively. Chloe half-tangled with him as the Mayor moved on to upcoming town events. 

“We’ve been discussing having a celebration next week to commemorate the 100th week of living in Friendship Reef. I know there’s been a lot of arguing, because our dearly departed Squidbert’s birthday is coming up in a few weeks as well. And here’s what I am proposing: why not celebrate both? We Squiddles know how precious each morning is. And on top of that, we know how to throw a good fun party!” A great cheer rose from the crowd. “If you would like to be on festival commitee, please speak to Madame Lovebeak! With that, I declare this meeting adjourned. Hail Fluthlu!” 

“Hail Fluthlu!” 

As soon as the Divine Creator’s name rang through the air, Sealace turned to Bubblebro. “We were considering, we being the three of us that is, taking a field trip of sorts to the Valley of Laughter and we wondered if you might be inclined to join us, should such a thing interest yo.” Her pinkish skin sparkled, a trait Chloe and Inky had come to associate with embarrassment. 

Bubblebro considered for a moment. “No thanks. Been there.” 

Sealace looked crestfallen. Chloe jumped in, “but you’ve been there with all three of us at the same time! It’s not where you go, it’s who you go with! Plus, it is Sealace’s first time, so you should really come! Come on Bubbley, what else are you going to do today?”

Inky added, “last time I went with you, we looked for treasure and we never got to check those last couple of caves, remember?”

“Well,” Bubblebro said, “yeah, it’s true I didn’t have any plans. I guess is friendship is the theme of the day or whatever, who I am to say no.” Chloe and Inky tangled with him enthusiastically. 

“Let’s get going then!” Chloe exclaimed.

Sealace glanced askance at her. “Should we not inform anyone where we are headed first?” 

“Nope! I forgot you haven’t left the Reef since coming here. A lot of the older Squiddles escaped the Skipper by inexplicably not being where they were supposed to be and not telling anyone. As the saying goes, ‘Die with your friends, survive alone!’” 

“Or, ‘find a big enough rock’. Apparently the Skipper had rock-blindness. That’s how Fastfin survived.” Bubblebro said. Sealace bobbed her head and followed them silently. The few Squiddles who had remained hanging around watched them leave with fond and anxious looks on their faces.

When they were once again out of earshot of the other Squiddles, they relaxed and swam along side-by-side. “This is really great,” Inky said in his shy voice, “to be going on an adventure with all of you.”

None of them commented on the shiver that ran through each other their bodies. 

“What is in this valley anyway?” Sealace asked.

“Treasure! Or there used to be before Bubbly and Inky got most of it. It’s a fun place to play though. I’ve only gone a few times with some other buddies but we have this long campaign of Skippers and Squiddles going.”

“Don’t ask. She’ll try to make you play,” Bubblebro advised. The other three laughed and together they continued on the way to the valley.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Due to technical difficulties, the Squiddles! Halloween Special may be shortened, but the next part will be airing tomorrow, Halloween 2012!


	3. Return from the Valley

They spent most of the afternoon at the Valley of Laughter, playing together with much joy and high spirits. As the sun was starting to go down and they were ready to leave, Inky suddenly shouted, “Bubbles, I almost forgot! We need to check the last two caves! Chloe, Sealace, come on, we’ll share the treasure with you!” 

Sealace looked hesitant but she allowed Chloe to grab one of her tentacles and drag her off toward the other side of the Valley. Bubblebro and Inky led them to a small cluster of caves at the farthest end,  a good fifteen minute swim from the entrance of the Valley where they had spent most of their day. Inky swam straight in, Chloe trailing close behind him now. “You’re so brave when it comes to caves, Inky! I feel a little scared.” 

Inky turned back and grinned at her. “Somehow, I feel like a hero in this valley. It’s such a great feeling!” 

“Looks like you may get to be a hero now, Inks.” Bubblebro said from the back of their group. He gestured to the wall behind Inky. “In fact...maybe we can all get a shot at playing the hero.”

On the wall, there were two great scrolls adorned with images of Fluthlu - his whole narrative, all the legends they had heard since they were little Squiddles woven into a majestic tapestry. Fluthlu emerging from the darkness of the Furthest Rings. Fluthlu ascending the great building in the City above the Ocean. Fluthlu’s first Squiddle, Squidscratch White. His loss against Land-Dwellers and His Fall from the skies. Between the two scrolls, there hung four swords. They still shone brightly, as if recently forged, each hilt inset with a precious sea gem. 

All four stared with solemn respect for a few moments. Sealace finally said, “well, they are pretty, but swords aren’t much of a Squiddle thing, are they?”

“Not at all,” Chloe agreed, “because we Squiddles solve our problems with TANGLES AND TICKLEFIGHTS!” She leaped on Sealace, startling her into a tangle, her tentacles reaching out to pull Bubblebro and Inky into it as well. They continued in this jolly manner for a long while then left the caves, and the Valley just as the sun began to set. 

As they got closer to Friendship Reef, it seemed to suddenly get colder and quieter. Inky drew close to Chloe and Bubblebro drifted to Sealace’s side. “Chloe, remember the night we met?” Inky asked in a whisper.

“I do,” she answered, “it was a chilly night like this. We both swam in from opposite directions - I had just seen the Skipper at my old colony and you had gotten wind of Murky Brineswallows so you were fleeing too. I was so scared that night, but it ended up being the best night of my life, because I got to meet you, Inky!” 

“Whatever happened to old Brineswallows?” Bubblebro asked. “He just kind of disappeared a few weeks before the Skipper was killed, right?” 

Sealace tugged his tentacle. “I heard that he was killed by the Skipper because he was causing market prices to go down. Supply and demand, if you're familiar with any of that...” Inky and Chloe gave her blank looks; Bubblebro's face remained impassive. “Anyway, both of them are dead and gone. Praise Fluthlu.” 

“Right...” Inky whispered, and clutched at Chloe's tentacle. They swam towards the big sign that spelled out Friendship Reef in shells and ropes of algae. The Reef was completely silent. The four buddies interlinked tentacles and erased all the space that had been between them. “What's that?” Even though Inky was barely speaking above a breath, his question echoed throughout the town. “That twisted brown thing there?” 

Tentatively, they moved en mass towards it. Bubblebro reached out and picked it up. They all stared with dread. “It's a piece of net,” Sealace breathed. “But we were just saying...it can't be...”

Bubblebro started to pull them towards the crannies where the Squiddles usually spent their nights. “Before we get all into the speculations, I suggest we find somewhere not so out in the open. Maybe there are others who didn't get caught.” He didn't speak with much hope though; since the threat of the Skipper had ended, Squiddles had a habit of staying out as long as possible and the sun had only just set. If there was no one outside, there was probably no one left in the first place. When they were in the nook, which was predictably empty, he spoke again. “So, nets.” 

“Don't try to be so cool!” Chloe shouted. “We have a big problem here!”

“Yelling and going into a panic is clearly the best solution in this case. Thanks for reminding me, Chloe.” She slapped him with the flat of her tentacle. “If that wasn't clear, I was being sarcastic there. Any suggestions?” The silence pressed up against them. It was the first time in nearly a hundred weeks that they had felt that kind of emptiness, that sense of being absolutely alone. Growing uncomfortable with the growing reminders of the bleak life before Friendship Reef, Bubblebro tried again to get the others to speak. “What should we do? I'm all for staying here, really. The Skipper would never find us with all the rocks around.”

“It's not the Skipper though Bubbles, he's dead.” 

“Right. Dead. Completely dead, anyway, I don't think Land-Dwellers in general can see rocks. It's just a thing they have. So we could stay here until...until...”

“Until what? They won't come back. We have to go. We have to find a new colony. It's too lonely otherwise...” Inky surpressed a cry. “And we have to go in different directions. 'Die with your friends, survive alone', remember?” 

“No!” Chloe said, getting out of her shock. “We can't split up! Even if our chances are worse with all of us, we belong together, because we're friends. I'd rather spend my last moments with all of you than live another three years without you. You all remember the great stories of Squidbert, who fought and killed the Skipper without fear! Just because we're Squiddles, just because we think friendship is paramount and love is the best answer, that doesn't mean we can't, that doesn't mean we won't protect ourselves! It may be too late to save everyone we loved, but we have each other, and we can save all of the other Squiddles in the sea from this terrible monster that is trying to destroy us!”

Sealace looked at Chloe tenderly and tangled. “You're right. All those things you said, I agree most certainly with them. All I've known in my life is running and hiding. I want to face my fears. I want to avenge all the Squiddles, especially my family. We've been hunted since Land-Dwellers took to sea because our skins. Let's end this tragedy of our kind.” 

“Too bad you guys made us leave the swords in the caves,” Bubblebro muttered. 

“We..won't need swords,” Inky interjected. “We Squiddles have our own powers. My dad taught them to me before he was caught. I'll teach you, then, let's go kick some Squiddle-poacher butt.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is becoming very rushed. The actual terror of the Ghost of Skipper Plumbthroat (spoilers huhu) will come...at some point. Either Halloween 2012 or the Day After Halloween 2012, which is just as scary, methinks.


	4. The Ghost of Skipper Plumbthroat!

“Row, row, row me boat!” The jaunty sea tune faded in and out of hearing. The seas were rough again tonight and the battered ship was being thrown from side to side. Chloe, Inky, Bubblebro and Sealace poked their heads above the waves. The ship emitted a ghostly light, illuminating the rain as it fell with a greenish hue. The cheerful song sung in a rough voice contrasted oddly with the otherwise gloomy scene. The four Squiddles sunk below the waves again and swam up against the side of the boat. 

Up close, they could see what a wreck the ship was: the wood was near rotted through, crusted with anemones and algae. It didn’t have an electric motor, the sail wasn’t up and neither were any oars in the water, but it was still moving forward through the choppy waters. Inky, who knew a great deal about ships, shouted above the waves, “I know this kind of ship! It’s not a Land-Dweller ship, it’s a Shark ship!”

“What?” Chloe yelled back, “Why do sharks have ships?”

“I don’t know, they just do! It doesn’t make any sense for sharks to be messing with Squiddles, because they are a natural predator so we can handle them easily! But there’s nowhere else they could have taken them! We have to act quickly though, there might be a chance to save them!” 

They united in a fierce tangle, orange on green on pink on fuchsia, then one by one propelled themselves onto the boat.

The floor of the boat was in just as bad condition as what they had seen on its sides. The wood cracked and peeled and was covered in something warm and sticky. They knew what is was without even looking at the great net near the bow: Squiddle blood and ink. It is a sad fact of the Squiddle race, but every Squiddle is well acquainted with the sight of this mixture, as nearly every Squiddle has encountered or just escaped a massacre. They are also familiar with the sight of Squiddle skins stretching out on a line. They sent a silent prayer to Fluthlu for the safekeeping of the fallen’s souls.

Kneeling at the bow, facing away from them was the source of the green light they had seen. Wearing a familiar navy blue reefer jacket adorned with gold tassels, navy pants tucked into thick black boots, a white hat, and a sliver of a purple kerchief around his throat, they looked with horror at the Ghost of Skipper Plumbthroat. They could hear him singing again. “They swim around and squeak and are full of Squiddle giggles!” They saw in his ghostly silhouette the motion of a knife enthusiastically cutting. 

“In the name of Friendship and Laughter, stop this now!” Sealace shouted, throwing herself at him. She hit the back of his jacket, which just flopped forward and she flew through the material to land right in his hands.

“Oh ho ho!” He exclaimed. “Lookit what we just got! Another Squiddle, aye, but this one is a sparkler! That means extra profits, oh ho!” He let the Squiddle he had been working on drop as he got a firm grasp on Sealace. She flailed but her tentacles only slid through the ghostly hands of the Skipper. “Aye, that’s right, tire yourself out! You can’t touch me thanks to the power of the sharks’ magic!” 

Bubblebro was about to launch himself at the Skipper but Chloe restrained him. “Wait, Bubbly! We have to do this together! Inky, are we ready?” 

Inky sat paralyzed on the ground. “I don’t know if we can do it with only three of us! I don’t know if it will even work since he’s a ghost! I - I’m scared!”

“We got to try!” Chloe encouraged him. “Come on, we need to act now or something may happen to Sealace! Ready, on three! One, two, three -”

“FRIENDSHIP ANEURYSM!” They leaped off the group and latched onto the Skipper’s jacket. He cried out, startled, tossing Sealace up in the air, and she fell over the side of the boat, back into the water. They held onto his tassels and tickled him and hugged him. He stood up and blindly ghosted around the boat, his lack of mass not further causing the boat to thrash about. 

“Get off me!” He cried. “I don’t need any tangle buddies! I don’t need anyone! I am the fearsome Skipper Plumbthroat! I work alone! Anyway, I have other friends! Like Jazzer! We’re good friends! Never mind that she only raised me from the dead so she could get money from me - oh me goodness, that’s right isn’t it, she only wants my money, I am all alone in the world...again!” The Squiddles continued their giggling and friendly antics until he collapsed.

“It’s okay, Skipper Plumbthroat! You don’t have to stay in this world anymore! You can go back to the dead place!” Chloe cheered.

“In fact, you really should go back! I bet all your dead friends really miss you!” Inky added.

“And stay there!” Was the politest Bubblebro could manage. 

“You’re...you’re all right!” He sobbed. “I’d best be going again then. I’ve gotta a cuppa waiting for me out there, no reason to stay here...” with those last pathetic words, he began to glow brighter and brighter, until it was so bright it hurt and they shut their eyes. When they opened them, he was gone again. 

The storm continued around them as they slowly worked themselves off the tassels. “That was easier than I thought it would be,” Bubblebro finally said. “Why have we been persecuted by that guy for so long?”

Chloe shrugged. “He’s usually sneakier. I guess the whole ghost thing turned out to not be that much of a good thing for him. And I guess he felt lonelier than usual as well. I don’t really know what he’s up to in the afterlife anyway.” A plop on the deck announced that Sealace had returned. “Oh, hi. We’re already done.” 

“Oh.” She sounded disappointed. “Is he gone for good?” 

“Probably not,” Bubblebro sidled over to Sealace. “Guys that like have a tendency to keep coming back. Besides, I bet he still owes money to the sharks. And as long as he owes money, they’ll keep bringing him back, especially now that they know it’s a viable option. But we Squiddles will build a stronger society than ever, and this is the last massacre we’ll see at his hands.”

“Come on guys, let’s go find a new colony,” Inky said. Tentacle in tentacle, they jumped off the side of the boat, leaving behind their friends and family of Friendship Reef, and headed towards a new, bright future.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This ended up being kind of weird and irrelevant. Still, given Squiddles! low rating during its run on national television, I do hope this kind of thing would fit in. Thanks for tuning in, see you at the next Squiddles! Holiday special!


End file.
